An example of article transport facilities such as one described above is disclosed in JP Publication of Application No. 2006-290177 (Patent Document 1). The article transport facility of Patent Document 1 includes a travel rail installed along a travel path, and a travel vehicle which is guided along the travel path with travel wheels rolling on travel surfaces of the travel rail. A step may form in the travel surface of the travel rail, in a form of a discontinuity in the travel rail or in a form of a damage, etc., at a joint of the travel rail. And when the travel vehicle travels over such a step, it has an adverse effect of causing vibration of the travel vehicle and of promoting wear of the travel wheels of the travel vehicle.
Thus, in the article transport facility disclosed in Patent Document 1 described above, the travel vehicle has a distance sensor for measuring the distance to a travel surface of the travel rail. And the controller of the article transport facility is configured to manage the distance to the travel surfaces of the travel rail based on the result of the measurement by the distance sensor.